Pulled Pork... not just a hobby

Yesterday we had company over and we haven't seen this couple for a while. I thought we were going to head out to the ol delish stand by of In N Out for lunch, but the pork roast I tossed in the crock pot was done just in time to satisfy our needs

I found a pork loin roast at the market for 50% off - my total cost was just about $3.75. I also had to send hubby to the store to get those fabulous deli rolls. $4 for a bag of 6. My recipe came out of the Betty Crocker cook book (the one with the pink cover that I was DYING to have and didn't tell anyone, but received it that very Christmas!) on page 392. I'd made this recipe before and left myself a few notes in the margin so that I could remember for the next time. Smarty pants, I know.

The recipe is as follows
1 3-pound boneless pork shoulder blade roast
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup beef broth
12 hamburger buns or kaiser rolls, split and toasted

Last time I made this I think I followed it pretty well to the T except, I had accidentally purchased a pork roast with a bone in (specifically because I ASKED for bone in, because I was trying to make a different kind of pork roast, but forgot that I had to ask for the LOIN, so then I had 2 bone in roasts - one loin and one 'roast') anyhooo....when looking back, that's all I could remember. My notes tell me it was a 3.5 pound roast and it made 11 large sandwiches

This time I had a 1.5 pounder and anticipated only feeding hubby and myself for dinner then lunch leftovers. Also this time? I had a baby....So, at the time I was trying to get this all together, I had JUST gotten le bebe to la la land, I wasn't dressed, I needed to pump, I had to swap laundry (which means folding whatever is in the dryer uuugh)and get a possible meal for 4 ready. It was 11:15 and the friends were scheduled to arrive at noon.

I put the roast in the crock pot, opened a bunch of garlic. No time to count. Tossed them in my handy dandy mini food processor and dumped the minced goodness onto the meat. I sprinkled on oregano (crushed?? ummm...looked crushed to me - going in as is!). It looked a little sparce, so I sprinkled more...I had cumin (turkish cumin..wtf is Turkish cumin and how is it different than regular cumin and WHY do I HAVE Turkish cumin??? I can only think I needed it for a recipe once upon a time and that was all I could find *sigh*) I did measure the cumin out. I also measured the onion powder. Both went right on top of the meat. I can't see much of the meat anymore, but that's alright. I found coriander. WHOLE coriander seeds - *SIGH*!! WHY do I have whole coriander seeds?? I have NEVER used these. I contemplated for a second trying to crush them and then thought NO. NO TIME! NO TIME!! Opened the fridge for the broth..Instantly I flash back to the previous day at the market and thinking to myself "self. don't forget some broth!" oy vey. I forgot the broth. I found chicken bouillon cubes in the cupboard. The recipe calls for 1 cup broth, but to use a cube, you have to use 2 cups boiling water. BAH. 1 1/2 cups should do....I mean, I'm already using chicken instead of beef for a pork roast for pete's sake. I also decided to toss on a little allspice I bought from my fave store ever. Trader Joe's.

Turn that puppy on high for 4 hours and voila! I had a perfectly succulent pork roast ready for my hubby to pull apart and dish up. I had to dig into our potato chips for a side, but I had bought those 2 for $3 the day before, so the moral of this story is: anything goes with the crock pot and you'll get a delicious meal -just use what you have. The roast produced 6 sandwiches. Total cost of the meal? $10.25 and my amazing math (calculator) skills tells me that is just over $2.50 a person. Not too shabby for a Sunday funday lunch!

Sidenote: I didn't even realize until I was typing this up that I had completely forgotten the black pepper and cayenne pepper. Didn't seem to make any difference - I got rave reviews and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Know what else made me feel warm and fuzzy? The fact that I pumped, picked up the living room, and swapped the laundry before our company arrived and before le bebe awoke.

Next time, if I'm really fancy, I'll take pictures. I had great intentions of doing so for this post, but the "NO TIME! NO TIME!!" kept running through my head - my camera was in the car and my phone was nowhere to be found. Therefore, no photos :P